Hoping to stoke a perception of momentum about his mayoral campaign, city Councilman Bill Peduto appeared with dozens of officeholders and union officials Thursday outside the City-County Building, Downtown.

The rally of figures who had endorsed him earlier was emceed by county Executive Rich Fitzgerald, who declared that, "We need a mayor who can work with everybody" and pointed to the surrounding array of city, county and state officials as evidence that Mr. Peduto was that person.

Though he gets corrected in the comments:

"The rally of figures who had endorsed him earlier..." that is simply inaccurate. about a dozen new endorsements were announced today including senate democratic leader jay costa, rep dan frankel, county councilman bill robinson, county council president chuck martoni, and school board president sharene shealey. were none of those leaders of state and county government and the school board worth mentioning?

And:

"The rally of figures who had endorsed him earlier..." Somehow the fact that both the minority leader Jay Costa and Caucas chair Dan Frankel endorsing Bill doesn't seem noteworthy? Half of Wagner's campaign is him saying what great friends he has in Harrisburg yet here we see most of the state reps and senators backing Peduto. These are some of the most notable endorsements in the race. I'm not one to start bashing the media but come on P-G it takes three seconds to do this research.

Must've been an oversight. Anyway, O'Toole got the message of the day:

The tableaux of supporters from various layers of government and civic life was designed to support Mr. Peduto's contention that he had forged a new coalition to move the city forward. Speaking afterwards, Mr. Peduto acknowledged the strength of the Wagner challenge.

"I think momentum shifts in any campaign," he said. "We know that -- Jack getting into the race late -- obviously there's going to be an immediate shift to him, but once people start focusing on who represents the future, who is part of the past, who has a coalition that's built around the future of the city of Pittsburgh and who is being supported by those who supported the past administration, I think when people start focusing in on this race, momentum will shift again."

It was a strong showing of support for Pittsburgh mayoral candidate Bill Peduto from elected officials, labor unions, and community leaders — what Peduto calls a new coalition for a new Pittsburgh.

“I just want to savor this moment,” said Peduto as he turned to face his supporters, ” because this is a coalition of all of us working together — different battles which each of us had where we have been allies over years and years of supporting each other.”

“And I get to stand to be here today as a new team comes together, a new coalition for a new Pittsburgh,” he added.